• Source:REUTERS
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Philippines Earthquake: An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 struck Mindanao, Philippines, on Saturday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said, at a depth of 63 km (39 miles), and tsunamis were expected to hit the Philippines and Japan shortly. The Philippine Seismology Agency PHIVOLCS said tsunami waves could hit the Philippines by midnight local time (1600 GMT) and could continue for hours.

The Japanese broadcaster NHK said tsunami waves of up to a metre (3 feet) high were expected to reach Japan's western coast a little later - by 1:30 a.m. on Sunday (1630 GMT on Saturday). The U.S. Geographic Survey put the quake at magnitude 7.6 and a depth of 32 km (20 miles), and said it had struck at 10:37 p.m. (1437 GMT).

A tsunami alert has been issued for western Japan's Pacific coast following a major earthquake
in the Philippines, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on Saturday.
The tsunami, which is estimated to be 1 metre high, will likely reach Japan as early as 1:30 a.m. on Sunday (1630 GMT on Saturday), public broadcaster NHK reported.

Phivolcs said it did not expect significant damage from the tremor itself, but warned of aftershocks. The area has already been hit by more than a dozen aftershocks, the largest measuring at magnitude 6.4, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). Raymark Gentallan, local police chief of the coastal town of Hinatuan near the earthquake's epicentre and which has a population of around 44,000, said power has been knocked out since the quake struck, but disaster response teams had not yet monitored any casualties or damage.

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"We're evacuating people away from coastal areas," he told Reuters. Photographs posted on social media by Hinatuan's local administration showed scores of residents and queues of vehicles moving towards higher ground, with one large shelter occupied by several dozen people.

Earthquakes are common in the Philippines, which lies on the "Ring of Fire", a belt of volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean that is prone to seismic activity. The EMSC said the quake of magnitude 7.5 had struck at a depth of 63 km (39 miles), while the U.S. Geographic Survey put the quake at magnitude 7.6

(Except header, this copy has not been edited by Jagran Staff.)